I took 2nd.

I had originally planned on getting my 10 mile long run in Thursday morning, so I wouldn't have to do a long run while I went to MinneSNOWta to visit the boy.  The weather report looked treacherous for the weekend, so I said screw it, and thought it would give me something to do during the weekend other than wallow.  Well, what do you know, the weather report appeared to clear up Thursday night, leaving me to do 10 miles out of town.  To be honest, I tend to not do my long runs when I go visit him.  Running for an hour and a half just doesn't sound appealing in comparison to super sweet fun hang out time, right?  I sent him an email making him promise to force me to go running no matter WHAT.  And if I didn't, than I was grounding myself from visiting him until the marathon.  Yeah, that's right, I'm a stern disciplinarian!

Luckily (ok not luckily at all, let's be honest) he had to work for a chunk of Saturday.  After wrapping up the rest of Season 4 of HIMYM I decided it was time to run.  Weather report:  14*F.  Wind chill (aka feels like):  A witch's titty.  Haha, sorry, always wanted to use that expression.  Snow falling, wind gusts in the mid-teens.  Road report, mostly packed down snowy/slick/crap.  Awesome.  I put on as much clothes as I could without making it physically impossible to move and I set out to run the town.  Literally.  Twice.  Literally.  After one lap around the town (seriously) I knew I was going to be lucky if I made it two laps, which would equate to about 6 miles.  The snow was falling on my bare face (definitely need a sweet ninja mask asap) melting b/c I'm so HOT (ow ow!) then painfully freezing to me.  Um...ouch?  Also, I had barely eaten any food (b/c I don't learn my lesson, ever) and I forgot to bring a GU (Gah! No GU!  GRR!)

My mile times were surprisingly faster than I had thought they would be based on the slick terrain.  Last time I ran with my Yaktrax I had estimated that my pace was around 10 mm.  All my miles came in under 10 mm (which was my goal).  You can definitely tell which miles were mostly snow/ice, and which ones I ran on clear road.

I did 7 miles in 1:07:10 for a pace of 9:36.
1. 9:25
2. 9:25
3. 9:47
4. 9:43
5. 9:48
6. 9:18
7. 9:41

Saturday night there was talk of heading to the gym to play some basketball before the Superbowl started on Sunday.  I knew there was a treadmill somewhere in the school, so I had planned to run my remaining 3 miles (primarily just to make sure my weekly mileage was where it was supposed to be prior to starting MARATHON TRAINING!!!!).  There was also a wager placed.  First Nick suggested that we play a game of one on one.  Now just to give you some visual, I am 5'5.5".  If I'm LUCKY, Nick is 6'5" slouching.  Basketball is not necessarily an ideal match up.  Instead he bet me that he could run the length of the basketball court before I could make it to the free throw line.  (The guy is surprisingly fast and had one of the fastest 40 yard times on his football team back in the day.  He still likes to brag that he can beat almost anyone in a 40 yard footrace......*cough* show off *cough*....)  What's that?  I still brag about *my* glory days?  Well touche.

After my 3 miles in --I kid you not-- 95+* temps (is this a sauna or a weight room, holy hell?!?!?!) pace: slow to keep from death, it was race time.

Suddenly someone didn't seem nearly as confident.  I told him I didn't want to do his "wussy" race, I wanted to do a legit race to the endline.  And then I got scared trying to figure out what the odds were that I would pull a muscle or injure myself right before I start MARATHON TRAINING!!!!   I stretched out a bit more just to be on the safe side and decided it was ON!  It was over in a flash (twss) and I WON!  Ok, I didn't.  But he only beat me by about a stride (my stride not his).  I honestly cannot tell you the last time I ran that fast.  I miss sprinting oh so much. :(  So I didn't win, but I guess technically I was the Women's Overall Winner, plus I technically won my AG as well.  Where the heck is my trophy?!?!? :D

Also, just looked back on my blog, and I realized that I didn't post about my last super awesome speed workout from Thursday night.  So let's go back in time for a moment and review that (don't you wish I posted more than 1-2/week so we wouldn't have this long run on post?  me too.)

I did a mile warm up, followed by 1600m, 2 x 800 m, 4 x 400 m.  I ended up with 4 miles in 31:17 for a pace of 7:50.  After each interval I walked for ~.1.

Warmup	1 Mi	9:39	9:39	9:39
Interval	1 Mi	7:35	17:14	7:35
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:36	20:50	7:12
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:36	24:26	7:12
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:36	26:02	6:24
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:36	27:38	6:24
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:36	29:14	6:24
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:35	30:49	6:20

Yay speedy legs.  No wonder I almost won our footrace. :p   I told him I'm going to do some intense speedwork and that he'd better be ready for the re-match.

I'll leave you with some fun pictures from work on Friday.  It was Jersey Day in the office.  My office husband and I decided that we would wear our Favre jerseys so we'd be super cool (he's a big Jets fan).  Little did we know another chica in the office was wearing a Vikes Favre jersey.  I love seeing all the #4 love.


Tom & Jeri.  Yes.  I think they hired him just for the comic appeal of our names together.